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Monthly Archives: June 2018

With the skyline behind the stage and a shimmering oak tree mural backdrop, downtown Raleigh’s Red Hat Amphitheater creates a perfect setting for a night of music. The Revivalists, who headlined the venue recently, had the crowd grooving from the very first guitar riff. This band from New Orleans continues to grow, and with their…

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Sometimes, we have to endure the mundane in order to achieve the marvelous. Such is the story of “Going Through The Motions,” the new tune from Dallas-based seasoned songcrafter Salim Nourallah. “Another songwriter I admire once said this about the ‘occupation’ of songwriting: ‘Most of the time to those around you, you don’t appear to…

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It’s a family thing y’all–that was the takeaway message from Calexico’s recent performance at Portland’s Revolution Hall. The show was sold out, a formula for some high-level energy. And as Calexico, on tour supporting their latest (and ninth) studio record, played their hearts out, they delivered in spades. Their eclectic style of American pop, mariachi,…

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Shangri-La is a distant, imaginary place, one where everything is pleasant and you can have everything your heart desires. Nashville-based art rock duo Fox Grin brings that idea a little closer with their new and appropriately-titled single “Shangri-La,” a tune from their forthcoming album Dusk, due out early next year. “‘Shangri-La is about the escaping feeling…

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It’s a deflating experience when it’s supposed to be your special day, but the world just doesn’t cooperate—and we’ve all been there. New York City-based singer/songwriter Nick Cianci, who will release his debut EP, High-Fidelity Depressed next month, introduces us to one such unlucky lady in “Sparkling Jenny,” the first single off the EP. “In…

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While her teenage peers were gushing over gossip and “The Gilmore Girls” way back in the day, Jilian Linklater was teaching herself to play guitar. Now, years later, after releasing two EPs garnering her millions of Spotify streams and thousands of YouTube followers, significant placements in Disney movie trailers, television shows, and cuts by other…

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“I hold my hands and pray that you’ll be there on my final day, and if you are, will you come with me?” sings London-based singer/songwriter George Taylor in his new single, “Come Follow Me Down.” With its slinky groove awash in a minor key and a sinister edge, Taylor’s “come hither” vocal style would…

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With its eleven powerful tracks that pay tribute to the swampy southern blues of their origin, edged with gut-punching rock n’ roll, mostly Mississippi-based outfit Bishop Gunn’s new album Natchez, named for their hometown, represents the sound of the South as they know it. The band is made of Natchez sons Travis McCready (lead vocals),…

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Husband-wife duo JT Nero and Allison Russell, otherwise known as Birds of Chicago, relocated to the Music City not too long ago and will perform their first proper gig in their new hometown at free summer concert series Musicians Corner on June 15th. The pair met in 2006, and there were fireworks between them from the…

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Two years ago, when we last spoke with singer/songwriter Meiko, she had just moved to Nashville from Los Angeles, was about to release her appropriately-titled record Moving Day, and was about to have a baby. Now, the adventurous Georgia-born songcrafter has relocated to, wait for it, Hamburg, Germany. “My husband’s British, and he’s also half…